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For a book that was written by a self-confessed grumpy old man, this was an astonishingly refreshing read, and I really enjoyed it. Not only did I learn a good deal about the different islands, but it gave a real insight into the heart, mind and life of the author. I’m sure Alan would be the first to admit that he isn’t a natural writer (my red pen was itching), nevertheless, this book has genuine charm. And although Elle, the lady in the background, never actually appears, her character shines clearly through and softens Alan’s rougher edges.

And there is humour; this line made me smile… “Being on the seventh floor I locked the balcony door before going to bed and hid the key from myself, as I occasionally sleepwalk.”

Don’t expect a glittery guide to holiday sunspots, because you may be disappointed. No, this is an honest, big-hairy-warts-and-all look at the Canary Isles, through the eyes of an opinionated, but compassionate man. I soon gathered Alan’s no athlete, so, to walk the length of all seven of the Canary Isles for charity is admirable. Well done!

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As I suggested in my last post – here’s my (digital) book about the Seven Islands walk.

Without wishing to dissuade anyone from taking a look (being digital it’s cheap enough to take a chance :)) I have been instructed by Elle to point out at all times that it is honest and may offend some parties. It is also not a tourist brochure. If places I’ve passed along the way have been shit holes, I’ve described them exactly as they are… It’s just my opinion and I can not be anything other than honest!

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I don’t know if people were expecting me to write all my experiences from the walk this spring down on here. But I decided against it. Rather than do it bit by bit here I decided to put it in the form of a book after it being suggested by several people.

The draft is now done, and in Elle’s hands as she sorts out my spelling errors and grammatical ineptitude with her metaphoric red pen.

I’d like to think I’m not so far up my own backside to think that the world is dying to hear my story. The reality of it is that I wanted to get it all down in one place, instead of in pieces on this blog, for posterity rather than reasons of vanity. On that basis, don’t expect the work of a literary genius, or indeed an in depth travel guide on ‘walking the Canary Islands’. It’ll be part travelogue – though I’ve tried to avoid ‘I passed a mountain, then another mountain, then went through village X’, part my usual rants, some old stories, musings on life as an expat, about the people I met on the way, and the kind of crap that goes through your head doing something like this….

I’m not expecting to make my fortune on the back of this, maybe it’ll just become a nice keepsake for my new grandson one day. It would be nice to recover our costs through sales, that’s the extend of my ambition for it. Though, maybe, who knows, it might just make enough money for my next planned journey. We’ll see. And no, I’m not saying what it is until it’s game on…. Continue reading →

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I have a Google alert set on my name just to see what, if anything is being said about me on the Internet. Worth almost anyone doing if you want to protect your reputation. But that’s not what this post is about…

Anyway, on to the point. I’ve been increasingly getting alerts leading to links for a book called Voyeur dead by Alan Gandy. I got curious of course and had a look for it. The book is a photographic horror book about zombies – if the reviews on Amazon are anything to go by it’s pretty good. Continue reading →

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I wrote recently after acquiring our new dog – Pepper – about how we were employing the Cesar Millan training methods for the two books we had bought – How to Raise the Perfect Dog and Cesar’s Way.

Here’s a bit of an update…On the whole, with the odd glitch as you can see – it’s working out pretty well. Both of the boys are way better on the lead, and generally behave pretty well together. They do occasionally have issues with each other and get a bit boisterous – but we expected that with them both being dogs.

I’ve read one of the books – must get around to the other – and pretty much watched most of everything he’s done for TV. It works – it really does. Though I do wonder sometimes that he seems to have something very special about him, almost a ‘Doctor Doolittle quality’, that we mere mortals can never hope to emulate. The man has a gift!